Journey Stories

Real journeys, told by the students who lived them

Read honest, first-hand accounts of applying, funding, and moving abroad — filter by country or field, then share your own once you land.

Student boarding a flight with a backpack, walking toward the gate

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8 stories match your filters

Aerial view of a university campus with autumn trees

Portrait of a young man smiling outdoors

Rafid Hasan

MIT · USA

From a coaching center in Dhanmondi to MIT's CS PhD program

Three rejected applications, one rebuilt SOP, and a cold email that actually landed a reply — here's what changed between cycle one and cycle two.

Students walking across a snowy Canadian university campus

Portrait of a smiling young woman with glasses

Nabila Chowdhury

University of Toronto · Canada

Landing a fully-funded MPH without a scholarship agent

Everyone told me I needed to pay an agent to find funding. I didn't — here's the exact list of scholarships I applied to and the ones that actually paid off.

Historic university building with spires against a blue sky

Portrait of a young man in a collared shirt

Tanzim Ahmed

University of Oxford · UK

Two Clarendon rejections before the offer that changed everything

I was rejected for the Clarendon Scholarship twice before my third application finally succeeded. The essay that got me in wasn't the one I was proudest of.

European city architecture with a river and old bridge

Portrait of a smiling young woman outdoors

Meherun Nesa

Technical University of Munich · Germany

Moving to Munich on zero tuition and a public stipend

Germany's public universities charge no tuition even for international students — here's how I navigated the visa, blocked account, and German language requirement.

City skyline of Melbourne at sunset with a river in the foreground

Portrait of a young man with a beard smiling

Arefin Kabir

University of Melbourne · Australia

Switching from a BBA to a Data Science master's in Australia

My undergrad was business, not CS. Universities kept rejecting my applications until I found the one prerequisite that made all the difference.

Engineering students working with equipment in a workshop

Portrait of a smiling young woman with curly hair

Sadia Islam

University of Waterloo · Canada

Co-op terms paid off my entire Waterloo tuition

I chose Waterloo specifically for its co-op program, not its ranking. Four work terms later, my international student loan is already half paid off.

Portrait of a young man in a casual jacket

Imran Kader

Stanford University · USA

GRE optional didn't mean GRE didn't matter

My target program dropped the GRE requirement the year I applied. I submitted a score anyway — here's why that decision mattered more than I expected.

Physics laboratory with optical equipment and lasers

Portrait of a smiling young woman with short hair

Farzana Yasmin

Imperial College London · UK

A quantum computing internship led to a fully funded PhD offer

I never planned to do a PhD. A summer research internship at Imperial changed my entire five-year plan.